"WORST GAME OF THE YEAR"

Those are Jesse Wallin's words. Not mine.

Not that there is much to argue... last night's 5-1 Rebels loss to the Calgary Hitmen at the Enmax Centrium was quite possibly their poorest effort of the season.

You could see signs in the first period that the Hitmen were destined for big things. But the Rebels did just enough to hang on and keep the game scoreless through the opening twenty minutes.

Reason for hope came 4:09 into the second period when Mathew Dumba opened the scoring with his 12th of the season. That went up in smoke when Calgary tied the game just 39 seconds later. At 11:29 the Hitmen went ahead 2-1. They added three more goals in the third period to pull away for the win.

One would be wasting their time to try to figure out why the Rebels came out flat last night. The bottom line is that for a team that is supposedly desperate to get back into a playoff spot... the effort was inexcusable.

The Hitmen do deserve kudos for earning their eighth win in a row. But the least the Rebels could have done is made it tough for them to earn. No longer are injuries an excuse.

"Every goal we handed right to them" said Wallin post-game "our forwards were quitting on the backcheck and our defense was getting beat one one one. It was just a lot of soft, soft, soft, soft plays tonight." Not exactly a glowing review.

A few other quick notes...

- kudos to Alex Petrovic and Charles Inglis for coming to the aid of teammates who were checked from behind into the boards last night. The downside the Rebels lost their services for 17 minutes each, Petrovic in the first period and Inglis in the third

- kudos to the brave fans who came out to the Enmax Centrium despite the brutal conditions outside... you weren't necessarily big in numbers but you were big in spirit... keep hanging in there, your team needs you!

- Marc Mackenzie missed last night's game with an upper body injury he suffered Saturday night in Swift Current. He will also miss both games this coming weekend and is officially listed as out 'week to week'

- Thanks to Mooner for letting me sit in his chair while we sorted out some 'technical difficulties' with my booth in the lounge... it could have been a disaster but we pulled it out of the fire just fine!